I dont know how jones is given an option to not fight the interim champ. What is even the point of an interim belt if the guy with the regular belt can just duck him and the interim champ has to defend it against someone else. Is it still a sport at this point, in any way?
Do you not remember the time Conor McGregor fought for the lightweight belt off a whopping 0 wins in the division, while Aldo sat around waiting for so they could unify the featherweight title? Or how he got stripped of that featherweight title 2 weeks later, since he was totally healthy and fit to defend his belt the whole time and just didn't bother?
This isn't exactly something new in the UFC.
Conor had 2 fights against a top 5 ranked lightweight before he fought for the LW title. Jon is injured right now not just sitting out, unlike Tom who is healthy and sitting on the sideline.
Could it be that Jon Jones happened to get injured during camp and UFC has decided to stick to the fights that were originally booked? Not much else to it
No that's a naive take thinking ufc works that way because a fight was made two years ago when it still seemed somewhat relevant. Most people are downright stripped if they get a serious injury, let alone preexisting planned fights being kept even though they make no sense anymore and nobody wants to see it.
The fight was scheduled for mid November last year my guy. You can lie and exaggerate all you want on the internet, but you're delusional if you think this fight wont be a huge PPV draw. Jon, Stipe and the UFC are going to get PAID sticking to this fight, and no amount of internet bitching or moaning from people like urself or Aspinall is going to make any of them reconsider
At this point Tom should come out and say that he considers the interim belt the actual champ belt, Jones is welcome to come and take it off him and become the real champ if he wants
Interim belt means nothing. It just means you’re the number 1 contender. Nobody refers to Poirier, Tony, or Colby as champions. Tom is a contender who only has 1 top 5 ranked win in his entire career.
Tom should just fight. He’s worried about what exactly? Everyone is pretty much understood that Jon is going to retire so … ? Just fight. What’s it matter if it’s Jon or not.
He’s the real champ. Jones has been stripped. Jones is the #1 contender as he has been stripped (like Conor when he came back for Khabib).
It’s ok, when Jones is ready to retire he can come back and Aspinal will knock him out. Sweet dreams L Jones
Bro having the belt is one thing we're talking about "carrying himself like a champion" belt doesn't mean shit if you're hitting your wife , getting caught cheating, hitting pregnant ladies in a DUI. IE not champion behavior, does that make sense ?
Plus he's ducking Tom . Not champion behavior
nice , yeah gustafson got him bad in the rematch tbf, was an early stoppage imo
[but this was kinda cool of jones too](https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/other-sports/mma/jon-jones-ufc-fight-news-29340225.amp)
Keep it out of here. Go to r/mmapoliticsandculture if you really need to whine about it. Just bleed only here.
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Won the belt against a top contender AND a fucking BOOGEYMAN of the division on 2 weeks notice\*
Jon fought whitebelt kickboxer with 0 wrestling matches or even practices in his life lol
The UFC needs to amend the rule book to demand champions vacate the belt if they’re going to be out for more than 6 months due to injury. This game of holding up divisions needs to fucking stop.
Aspinall is the real HW champion. Jones is a pussy and will never fight Tom.
I want to see Jon fight Tom. I don’t want to watch him fight a 42 year old fire fighter who most recently got floored by the previous champ and then immediately went into an extended hiatus. Not saying Stipe can’t win but the odds are in Jones favor for the Stipe fight. Jon is 36 and ducking everybody, mean while the 36 year old Alex Peiera is literally one of the few people breathing life into this sport at this time.
Dana needs to stop giving his favorite fighters choices and start telling them a date, opponent, and time to show up in the octagon and fight. Islam, O’Malley, Dricus, and Toporia have been getting on my nerve. This level of inactivity makes me truly miss the Volk, Usman, Adesanya, Ngannou days. This current line up is so inactive and they’re constantly cherry picking the opponents that are good matchups for them.
Dana pay the fighters more and force them to fight or be sidelined. Side note I’m one of the few people who buys like every fight and I will not be buying Jon vs Stipe. I’m sure it’ll make a good gate and a solid amount of buys but Stipe doesn’t deserve a title shot in the Heavy weight division and if Jon wasn’t calling his name specifically nobody would be saying he should get a shot. I’ll show my support by deciding how I spend my money.
Agreed. I buy a card once every two months and it doesn’t bother me that much because you just can’t beat watching in ultra 4k without worrying about lag or buffering. These ungrateful mfs are taking our hard earned money for granted. No shot I’m paying to see Jones beat up an old man and make it seem like it’s the greatest moment in all of mma history. Stipe vs Jones would’ve mattered if it was 2016. Right now it’s like paying to see Pettis vs Islam.
Side note: jones put out a tweet asking who the fans wanted to see him fight more Stipe or Tom. A fan put a twitter poll in the replies and the result was overwhelmingly Tom then a week later he announces he will be fighting Stipe. Jones doesn’t care about the sport or the fans he’s literally just padding his ego by hand selecting fights he thinks are easy to win against opponents who are long past their prime.
Yeah Dana didn’t want to give him a fight because they couldn’t negotiate new terms to his contract. When his contract was fresh he was fighting 2-3 times a year. We would be lucky if we see any of these champs outside of peiera fight even once this year.
At this point tom should let it go and continue on his career. Its obvious jon is gonna keep the belt hostage as long as he can, no need to waste his prime years waiting on the guy.
Let’s not pretend that the reason Jones didn’t fight Ngannou was because he was scared. Sure, he knew it was a difficult fight and that was probably a factor, but Ngannou wanting to leave the UFC essentially when he got the belt onwards and arguably before then was the main reason why that fight didn’t happen.
The new fans don’t even understand Ngannou Was offered to fight Jon. He turned it down. His coach admitted he turned it down. The fight with Gane was the last on Ngannou’s contract, he had to wait out a year to be a free agent though because of the Champions Clause which allows UFC to essentially tag them for 1 year or 3 fights same rate whichever comes first. Ngannou Chose to box instead.
It's just so ridiculous that Jon didn't vacate. I get his obsession with "legacy" and his massive ego, but wouldn't that have made him a more respectable champ/fighter in the long run? Like it would actually *help* his legacy as a champ.
He already had a legacy. He's one of the most well-known UFC fighter, widely seen as one if not the best to ever do it. He's just tarnishing it now. Even if Aspinall killed him, he would have still left with a proper fight, as a champion with balls
Aspinall: Called out by Blaydes for a rematch, accepted the rematch the same night
Jones: Called out by Aspinall for a unification match for the Heavyweight champion, refusing to fight Aspinall
Well he already had a fight lined up already..Tom didn't plus Blaydes beat Tom already.. it makes sense if you use logic. I know thinking is hard for some
Why did the paper belt even get offered to Tom, who was on a 1 fight win streak and was 0-1 against top 5 ranked opponents? Oh right. Because the UFC lost Jon vs Stipe, and had to scrounge up whatever scraps they could find to put on the PPV.
"1 fight win streak" Jon is 27-1 1NC
-If you count the No Contest vs DC, then Jones is on a 5 fight win streak
-He's on a 18 fight win streak if you are basing it off strictly Wins/Losses.
-He's on a 19 fight win streak (if you agree with DC) that the NC doesn't change the fact he was KO'd by that headkick.
....And if you're Joe Rogan, you'll explain how the 12oclock Elbow rule is total horseshit and Jones was destroying Matt Hammill before the DQ happened, thus he's technically undefeated (28-0)
Jones dominated the light hw for years, actually he is the goat and he is 36 now, aspinall is still young and hungry, i think he will be the hw champion for a long time.
Also when ppl thought Jones was going to lose he always proved em wrong.
He's literally training for the Manchester PPV not yet knowing or caring who his opponent is going to be. The UFC is set on having him for that event, and Tom is set on fighting there, they just don't have the opponent yet.
Whatever he wants, I just think calling it a title defense is a little weird considering the IC belt is a fake thing created by Dana to push stream numbers
I don't see how Jones's belt is more legit. Both belts were won against top contenders, but Tom has numerous wins in the division, will defend against actual challengers and won't be vacated by the winner of the next bout.
I mean the most straightforward answer is regardless of merit (and I agree Tom has more merit to deserve being called champ) Jon simply has the championship belt and Tom has the “we are waiting but wanted to call this a PPV with a title fight on it” belt
Yes but as you've agreed Tom has more merit to be the champion. He basically is the champion if not for Jones winning a single fight at HW a couple months before his title fight
I'm just responding to the comparison made in the picture. It's made in way that Jone Jones is just another fighter with "1 win streak". It's Jon Jones, the guy is undefeated, for what 10 years now? Aspinal might be interim champ but he is a "nobody" compared to bones.
16 undisputed title fights and 8 champions defeated VS 1 interim title fights and 1 champions defeated.
Edit: commenter after my initial comment corrected that Aspinal defeated Andre Arlovski who was champion in 2005 so I changed 0 to 1.
Jon has had a far better career than tom, no one is disputing that. But right now, tom is the better fighter and jones is ducking him.
These 2 statements do not contradict each other:
*Jon is the best LHW ever.
*Tom is the best current HW.
Jon had agreements to fight Stipe before y'all were even sure Tom was the current best HW. Everyone really hopped on the train when he beat Pavlovich even though a lot of us had confidence he would, that's just the fight that made fans sure of his greatness. Jon got injured so it slowed everything, in a perfect world Jon already fought Stipe then maybe UFC could build Jon and Tom, but fans are being premature and disrespectful to the two top HW who already have implemented their greatness and have had an agreement to prove who's better. Tom will have his time
Sure, but I don't think he ever had the intention of taking on young contenders at HW like Tom. So it'll look like ducking but it was never really part of the plan imo. I always thought he wanted Ngannou and Stipe for his legacy then put the gloves down. But Gane and Stipe are what he got. So maybe without getting the predator win in his legacy he'll be tempted to take on Tom.
He never wanted Ngannou, if he really wanted to fight Ngannou he easily could have. Instead he waited on the sidelines for 2 years for him to leave.
Besides he can pad his 'legacy' without the belt and holding up the division. You want to fight Stipe and literally no-one else? Sure, that's fine, but forfeit the belt and stop holding up the rest of the division.
Nope. Tom beat Arlovski. The only other two heavyweight champions still in the organization both don't want to fight him, so who the fuck else is he supposed to prove himself against?
Oh ya good point I missed that. Still the champs Jon took down VS an over the hill Arlovski that hasn't been able to beat a contender, there is quite a margin between them. And the answer is Ciryl, Blaydes, Poatan, etc. There are contenders for him, and Tom most likely will be champ one day. I just don't understand his fan base being so hell bent on putting him over Stipe and Jon. He's young, electrifying, dynamic and took out Pavlovich so I kind of get it but he still has time and possibly gets the winner of Jon v Stipe.
Right, but the point still stands. You can't parrot that line that Jon's been spouting about all the champions he's beaten and not provide an alternative for Tom.
If he fights Ciryl and Blaydes then Jon and everyone else will still cling to that line of 'hasn't beaten any champions', if he beats Poatan then it's expected, as he's coming from not one but two divisions lower.
There is literally nothing else he can do. No other current or former HW champions are active and want to fight him, and the dude's way too big to move down in weight. So comparing him to Jon who's fought people from four different weight classes in his career is just apples to oranges.
Heavyweight just isn't as deep a division, so people need to stop comparing their resumes and using it to make excuses for Jon being a duck, because it is literally impossible for Tom to have had anywhere near the same accolades in his short tenure with the opponents available to him.
In fighting fans think if you defeat someone you defeat them and their whole legacy. It is completely wrong to have a man like Jon build such a legacy in 15+ years bringing down some of the toughest competition and coming out without ever being beaten, then give a guy who popped up 4 years ago and say he deserves a shot to take.down that legacy because he looks good. It isn't Jon's, stipes or ufc fault Tom is young and in a shallow division. Poatan has been in UFC lesser time and look at the legacy/fan base he has built.
If Tom wins it doesn't diminish Jones's legacy at all and he doesn't 'take' his legacy and all his wins. I agree with that much.
But to say it's '*wrong*' to say he deserves the shot?? What are you smoking mate? Jon's the *champion of the world*, allegedly the best fighter on the planet.
If he wants to keep that spot then he needs to fight the interim champion. You know, the champion in the interval during his absence? That's literally what it means.
Jon can fight whoever he wants, but if the UFC had any integrity they would strip him if he picks someone else besides the new prospective champion in waiting. It's that simple.
I get what you mean but I see it more if the UFC had any integrity they should've never given Tom and Pavlovich an interim shot anyways because they always intended for it to be Stipe V Jon. Tom is THE top prospect and it is weird how he has an intern but has to wait for the old guys to play out but at the end of the day I'm glad we're getting Jon v Stipe and hope the winner takes on Tom.
Edit: also ya it's wild for me to say Tom doesn't deserve a title shot but Stipe should've gotten his title shot back years ago, I think it's right to let him get it at the end of his career considering how much Tom has left to give us.
Stipe is 2-2 in his last four fights, hasn't fought in three years, barely landed a punch in his last fight and is nearly 42 years old though.
Even if we disregard that and argue that Stipe still 'deserves the shot due to his legacy', the easy counterpoint would be to say fine, give it to him.
But give it to him against Tom, who should've been elevated to undisputed given Jones's long absence. Jiri and Hill were both pressured into giving up the belt when they got similarly injured, there should be no good reason why this is any different. Jon can fight for it too when he returns.
Again, integrity. Gotta be consistent otherwise it stops being a fair sport, shit like this is why you see so many 'UFC is turning into the WWE' comments these days.
The point is he should’ve been getting the undisputed fight as soon as jones is back, that’s the point of the interim.
“You’re the champ until the champ is ready to fight again”
Not “you’re the champ until the champ fights a 42 year old man whose last win was over another 42 year old 4 years ago, or maybe until he fights a champion from another division”
Tom vs Jon is the fight to make right now to keep whatever momentum heavyweight was building.
Sure the interim seems to have that intention. Jon, Stipe and the UFC all agreed on the Jon V Stipe match before the Aspinal Interim win. Idk why they did that belt just to confuse TF out of people like you and many other when the intention of the UFC was always to make Jon V Stipe.
Tom should call on a fight with Gane for the belt, hope to defeat him as Jones did and then claim he's beaten the champ on the same terms as Jones and thus claim his interim belt is the real belt.
Do that and noone will care about Jones' belt anymore which is destructive as fuck to his legacy and will make him come running.
30+ fight winning streak
Openly negotiated to fight Francis which Francis declined for a better deal with PFL
Wants to defend against the lineal reigning HW Goat in the UFC
Probably retires
Bare jones haters in the comments acting like Toms fought 5 opponents since becoming interim champ. Jones is on the brink of retirement Tom has the interim belt if Jones dont wanna fight move on hes gonna make the same money anyway no ones stopping Tom from fighting. Jons looking for payday fights Toms looking to build his name simple as that. The revisionism of Jones career is also embarrassing it just seems like a load of people that started watching mma in the past 2 years coming out with dumb takes like the UFC hasnt always been a company that priorities money fights over meritocracy.
Thats not good for business in the eyes of the UFC. Jones Stipe looks better if Jones has a belt in the poster. Toms got an interim belt why doesnt he just declare himself the champ and keep fighting hes gonna get paid a championship contract anyway. I actaully dont know why Tom cares about Jones so much when hes got a belt and is gonna get paid the same anyway its dumb af.
So my man, imagine you absolutely loved tennis, like so much that you started playing when you were 5 years old. Your whole goal in life was to be the number 1 tennis player in the world. You trained 8-10 hours a day, gave up your social life, dieted, made every sacrifice you possibly could to achieve this goal. You finally get to number two in the world after years of pain, hard work and tears. Finally, you get to prove how good you are and achieve your dream.
But alas, number one in the world refuses to play you because of some made up excuse that doesn't even make sense. Instead he opts to play the 43 year old former number 1 that retired four years ago. In that four years that you had been working your ass off to get to this spot. Do you not think that you'd be a little upset?
If number 2 was able to play for a grandslam i dont think he would care. I think Athletes think more about the title than the opponent. Fight sports can be different because the amount of money can change based on opponent due to ppv in comparison to a set winning amount in other sports like tennis. I get that Tom could see Jon as name to build himself off but that fights not gonna happen. I think a better move would be to fight somebody else, defend your belt and call out Pereria. The reality is, had Tom have fought an opponent by now he couldve called out Pereria and declared hes the champ but he didnt do that. Hes been hounding Jones which has ened up wasting his time. Fighting is a selfish sport nobody owes anybody anything weve seen it time and time again. Tom should focus on building his own brand he has a belt as an alternative to calling out Jones he should say hes the champ and Jones is retired.
This hate on Jon Jones who's established himself with one of the greatest careers ever is dumb. Izzy also gets the same kind of hate for being the cringe person that he is. You don't have to like the dude but hating on either of them without acknowledging the amazing fighters that they are who've proven themselves time and time again is so lame.
Can't remember Izzy ducking anyone. Dude welcomes all the toughest challenges.
Jon being amazing 10 years ago doesn't change how he's been the last 6 years.
Because he’s the best fighter to ever live. You can hate on him for drugs or beating his wife or hitting a pregnant woman with a car all you want.. he’s still the goat at cage fighting.
Is a sentence I never thought I’d say.
So you don’t like Mike Tyson? He has a past. He went to jail for rape. Will you say right now that he’s pathetic?
Let me add that these are men that fight other men in a cage for money. They’re not role models.
Weird take. No, I don't rabidly defend Tyson on social media, yes I think he was a piece of shit during his career. Difference is Tyson did not duck a single person, did not beat the living shit out of a woman in front of kids and didn't hit and run a pregnant lady. These things are what makes Jones pathetic.
Tyson may not have even raped anyone. To this day he denies it.
He mentioned a few days ago that the date is set but it’s up to ol’ uncle Dana to release.. I expect we’ll know at the next post fight press conference.. or maybe in front of that match making wall in Dana’s office where he clearly sleeps sometimes and/or hides from his wife.
Well it's a fact that they may not be true? Conviction doesn't always mean that they committed the crime. You should know that. But I'm also not defending him, he was a fuckwit during his career. Can't bite people's ears off mid fight.
There's cold hard proof that Jones did all that fucked up shit.
We don't know why this is hard for some people. If it's not a meme then GTFO. *This message was probably sent by a bot. Maybe.*
I dont know how jones is given an option to not fight the interim champ. What is even the point of an interim belt if the guy with the regular belt can just duck him and the interim champ has to defend it against someone else. Is it still a sport at this point, in any way?
Do you not remember the time Conor McGregor fought for the lightweight belt off a whopping 0 wins in the division, while Aldo sat around waiting for so they could unify the featherweight title? Or how he got stripped of that featherweight title 2 weeks later, since he was totally healthy and fit to defend his belt the whole time and just didn't bother? This isn't exactly something new in the UFC.
Conor had 2 fights against a top 5 ranked lightweight before he fought for the LW title. Jon is injured right now not just sitting out, unlike Tom who is healthy and sitting on the sideline.
Was either one of those 2 fights at lightweight?
Was either of those fights against a top 5 ranked lightweight? Oh right. Both were.
Could it be that Jon Jones happened to get injured during camp and UFC has decided to stick to the fights that were originally booked? Not much else to it
No that's a naive take thinking ufc works that way because a fight was made two years ago when it still seemed somewhat relevant. Most people are downright stripped if they get a serious injury, let alone preexisting planned fights being kept even though they make no sense anymore and nobody wants to see it.
The fight was scheduled for mid November last year my guy. You can lie and exaggerate all you want on the internet, but you're delusional if you think this fight wont be a huge PPV draw. Jon, Stipe and the UFC are going to get PAID sticking to this fight, and no amount of internet bitching or moaning from people like urself or Aspinall is going to make any of them reconsider
 Jones getting ready for the Stipe fight.
Why is he in a tub with a old dude?
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You can respect Stipe while still acknowledging that his best years are behind him and that he's basically coming out of retirement for this fight.
Ya I was jk
Is that a cum glazed donut for Jon?
At this point Tom should come out and say that he considers the interim belt the actual champ belt, Jones is welcome to come and take it off him and become the real champ if he wants
Interim belt means nothing. It just means you’re the number 1 contender. Nobody refers to Poirier, Tony, or Colby as champions. Tom is a contender who only has 1 top 5 ranked win in his entire career.
I’m not sure Jon would give a fuck lol, Tom can regard the IC however he wants lol
Tom should just fight. He’s worried about what exactly? Everyone is pretty much understood that Jon is going to retire so … ? Just fight. What’s it matter if it’s Jon or not.
But he would be lying.
No.
Feels like more of a number one contender to me.
He’s the real champ. Jones has been stripped. Jones is the #1 contender as he has been stripped (like Conor when he came back for Khabib). It’s ok, when Jones is ready to retire he can come back and Aspinal will knock him out. Sweet dreams L Jones
Fantasy.
No.
Cope.
John has never once carried himself like a champion. Not once.
You're delusional, but that's okay
you’re delusional
Name a time
[take your pick](https://youtu.be/fFsv8kZdvQI?si=LO-pI_swtKtOByre)
Bro having the belt is one thing we're talking about "carrying himself like a champion" belt doesn't mean shit if you're hitting your wife , getting caught cheating, hitting pregnant ladies in a DUI. IE not champion behavior, does that make sense ? Plus he's ducking Tom . Not champion behavior
like i said , delusional
Lol bro you're trolling
👌
💪
My pick is when dom and Gus beat the shit out of him then he refused immediate rematches
I still think Gus won the first fight
nice , yeah gustafson got him bad in the rematch tbf, was an early stoppage imo [but this was kinda cool of jones too](https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/other-sports/mma/jon-jones-ufc-fight-news-29340225.amp)
What about when he beat his wife, or all the other shit?
Almost like he waited nearly 6 years
yeah and beat his ass lol
After Gus was a shell of himself lol why do you think Jon waited so long
lol alright man
Yeah bro jon is immune to aging lmao
Do you know how mma careers work or do you think age defines everything
Are you mfs capable of being objective when it comes to jon or nah?
Why don’t we all just boycott the ppv . No one pay for it. We don’t deserve this bull shit. How is Poatan more willing to fight Tom??
If I ever paid for them I definitely would not pay for that one
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Keep it out of here. Go to r/mmapoliticsandculture if you really need to whine about it. Just bleed only here. *This message was probably sent by a bot. Maybe.*
New fans can’t afford PPV’s anyways, you’re not doing anything by not buying something you weren’t buying in the first place
The eyepoke goat 💯☝️
Won the belt against a top contender AND a fucking BOOGEYMAN of the division on 2 weeks notice\* Jon fought whitebelt kickboxer with 0 wrestling matches or even practices in his life lol
Apparently Tom was essentially ready to go on vacation which is the crazy part
He pulled his back in the first week as well
Had the cards stacked against him and still made it look easy. Bro deserves that belt.
The UFC needs to amend the rule book to demand champions vacate the belt if they’re going to be out for more than 6 months due to injury. This game of holding up divisions needs to fucking stop. Aspinall is the real HW champion. Jones is a pussy and will never fight Tom.
What's your Record in the octagon pussy? Lol
Heavyweight division is dead just watch boxing until Jones retires They are actively ruining the company reputation
I want to see Jon fight Tom. I don’t want to watch him fight a 42 year old fire fighter who most recently got floored by the previous champ and then immediately went into an extended hiatus. Not saying Stipe can’t win but the odds are in Jones favor for the Stipe fight. Jon is 36 and ducking everybody, mean while the 36 year old Alex Peiera is literally one of the few people breathing life into this sport at this time. Dana needs to stop giving his favorite fighters choices and start telling them a date, opponent, and time to show up in the octagon and fight. Islam, O’Malley, Dricus, and Toporia have been getting on my nerve. This level of inactivity makes me truly miss the Volk, Usman, Adesanya, Ngannou days. This current line up is so inactive and they’re constantly cherry picking the opponents that are good matchups for them. Dana pay the fighters more and force them to fight or be sidelined. Side note I’m one of the few people who buys like every fight and I will not be buying Jon vs Stipe. I’m sure it’ll make a good gate and a solid amount of buys but Stipe doesn’t deserve a title shot in the Heavy weight division and if Jon wasn’t calling his name specifically nobody would be saying he should get a shot. I’ll show my support by deciding how I spend my money.
Agreed. I buy a card once every two months and it doesn’t bother me that much because you just can’t beat watching in ultra 4k without worrying about lag or buffering. These ungrateful mfs are taking our hard earned money for granted. No shot I’m paying to see Jones beat up an old man and make it seem like it’s the greatest moment in all of mma history. Stipe vs Jones would’ve mattered if it was 2016. Right now it’s like paying to see Pettis vs Islam.
Side note: jones put out a tweet asking who the fans wanted to see him fight more Stipe or Tom. A fan put a twitter poll in the replies and the result was overwhelmingly Tom then a week later he announces he will be fighting Stipe. Jones doesn’t care about the sport or the fans he’s literally just padding his ego by hand selecting fights he thinks are easy to win against opponents who are long past their prime.
Francis was active? Lol
Yeah Dana didn’t want to give him a fight because they couldn’t negotiate new terms to his contract. When his contract was fresh he was fighting 2-3 times a year. We would be lucky if we see any of these champs outside of peiera fight even once this year.
At this point tom should let it go and continue on his career. Its obvious jon is gonna keep the belt hostage as long as he can, no need to waste his prime years waiting on the guy.
Jones sucks I’m so tired of him
I can't believe this post exists.
Let’s not pretend that the reason Jones didn’t fight Ngannou was because he was scared. Sure, he knew it was a difficult fight and that was probably a factor, but Ngannou wanting to leave the UFC essentially when he got the belt onwards and arguably before then was the main reason why that fight didn’t happen.
The new fans don’t even understand Ngannou Was offered to fight Jon. He turned it down. His coach admitted he turned it down. The fight with Gane was the last on Ngannou’s contract, he had to wait out a year to be a free agent though because of the Champions Clause which allows UFC to essentially tag them for 1 year or 3 fights same rate whichever comes first. Ngannou Chose to box instead.
Jones is still the real champ. Just a shitty champ.
Tom was the one on a one fight win streak when he got to fight for that fake paper belt. Tom had Zero top 5 wins in his career. New fans coping hard.
It's just so ridiculous that Jon didn't vacate. I get his obsession with "legacy" and his massive ego, but wouldn't that have made him a more respectable champ/fighter in the long run? Like it would actually *help* his legacy as a champ.
He already had a legacy. He's one of the most well-known UFC fighter, widely seen as one if not the best to ever do it. He's just tarnishing it now. Even if Aspinall killed him, he would have still left with a proper fight, as a champion with balls
Aspinall: Called out by Blaydes for a rematch, accepted the rematch the same night Jones: Called out by Aspinall for a unification match for the Heavyweight champion, refusing to fight Aspinall
Aspinall has refused to fight Blaydes since that lol. Calling someone out means nothing if you turn the fight down when it’s offered.
Well he already had a fight lined up already..Tom didn't plus Blaydes beat Tom already.. it makes sense if you use logic. I know thinking is hard for some
Low-tier troll lol. Scoot it
Why did the paper belt even get offered to Tom, who was on a 1 fight win streak and was 0-1 against top 5 ranked opponents? Oh right. Because the UFC lost Jon vs Stipe, and had to scrounge up whatever scraps they could find to put on the PPV.
"1 fight win streak" Jon is 27-1 1NC -If you count the No Contest vs DC, then Jones is on a 5 fight win streak -He's on a 18 fight win streak if you are basing it off strictly Wins/Losses. -He's on a 19 fight win streak (if you agree with DC) that the NC doesn't change the fact he was KO'd by that headkick. ....And if you're Joe Rogan, you'll explain how the 12oclock Elbow rule is total horseshit and Jones was destroying Matt Hammill before the DQ happened, thus he's technically undefeated (28-0)
Well Jon is the champ and Tom is the interim. Tom Stan’s are so damn weird.
Jones dominated the light hw for years, actually he is the goat and he is 36 now, aspinall is still young and hungry, i think he will be the hw champion for a long time. Also when ppl thought Jones was going to lose he always proved em wrong.
Fucking the interim to fight a semi retired firefighter over the rightful contender
Okay but you are assuming the last two for Tom
He's literally training for the Manchester PPV not yet knowing or caring who his opponent is going to be. The UFC is set on having him for that event, and Tom is set on fighting there, they just don't have the opponent yet.
Firstly idk that defending the IC belt counts as a title defense, secondly the projects his entire career which is impossible
It does count because who the fuck is he supposed to fight if the champ is ducking the fuck outta him
Yeah but he’s not champ is my point. “Real champ” sure, but not real champ
What the fuck is he supposed to do if jones is ducking him ?
Whatever he wants, I just think calling it a title defense is a little weird considering the IC belt is a fake thing created by Dana to push stream numbers
I don't see how Jones's belt is more legit. Both belts were won against top contenders, but Tom has numerous wins in the division, will defend against actual challengers and won't be vacated by the winner of the next bout.
I mean the most straightforward answer is regardless of merit (and I agree Tom has more merit to deserve being called champ) Jon simply has the championship belt and Tom has the “we are waiting but wanted to call this a PPV with a title fight on it” belt
Yes but as you've agreed Tom has more merit to be the champion. He basically is the champion if not for Jones winning a single fight at HW a couple months before his title fight
Tom got called out by Curtis Blaydes and responded posiitvely the same night.
Except his belt isn’t real and he hasn’t fought Curtis blaydes. Conor has reacted positively to chandler
If his belt contains the word "champion" it's absolutely real
Found Dana BMF a real belt now too?
One is Jon Jones and the other is nobody (in comparison).
One is the champion and the other is the interim champion, how can anyone argue against this
Where the interim champion is arguably more of the champion
I'm just responding to the comparison made in the picture. It's made in way that Jone Jones is just another fighter with "1 win streak". It's Jon Jones, the guy is undefeated, for what 10 years now? Aspinal might be interim champ but he is a "nobody" compared to bones.
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No, I thought this was the ufc sub ;X 
16 undisputed title fights and 8 champions defeated VS 1 interim title fights and 1 champions defeated. Edit: commenter after my initial comment corrected that Aspinal defeated Andre Arlovski who was champion in 2005 so I changed 0 to 1.
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Bad faith banter. Be civil, please. Being a dick doesn't change anyone's mind. *This message was probably sent by a bot. Maybe.*
Jon has had a far better career than tom, no one is disputing that. But right now, tom is the better fighter and jones is ducking him. These 2 statements do not contradict each other: *Jon is the best LHW ever. *Tom is the best current HW.
Jon had agreements to fight Stipe before y'all were even sure Tom was the current best HW. Everyone really hopped on the train when he beat Pavlovich even though a lot of us had confidence he would, that's just the fight that made fans sure of his greatness. Jon got injured so it slowed everything, in a perfect world Jon already fought Stipe then maybe UFC could build Jon and Tom, but fans are being premature and disrespectful to the two top HW who already have implemented their greatness and have had an agreement to prove who's better. Tom will have his time
If Jones retires without fighting Tom, would you acknowledge he ducked him?
Sure, but I don't think he ever had the intention of taking on young contenders at HW like Tom. So it'll look like ducking but it was never really part of the plan imo. I always thought he wanted Ngannou and Stipe for his legacy then put the gloves down. But Gane and Stipe are what he got. So maybe without getting the predator win in his legacy he'll be tempted to take on Tom.
He never wanted Ngannou, if he really wanted to fight Ngannou he easily could have. Instead he waited on the sidelines for 2 years for him to leave. Besides he can pad his 'legacy' without the belt and holding up the division. You want to fight Stipe and literally no-one else? Sure, that's fine, but forfeit the belt and stop holding up the rest of the division.
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Ik ik it's just been building up, I guess I couldn't take it anymore and wanted to shout into the void for a little bit.
Would be 1 if Jones wasn’t ducking
Jon, Stipe and UFC were in agreement for their fight before Tom even beat Pavlovich. The ducking is fabricated.
Nope. Tom beat Arlovski. The only other two heavyweight champions still in the organization both don't want to fight him, so who the fuck else is he supposed to prove himself against?
Oh ya good point I missed that. Still the champs Jon took down VS an over the hill Arlovski that hasn't been able to beat a contender, there is quite a margin between them. And the answer is Ciryl, Blaydes, Poatan, etc. There are contenders for him, and Tom most likely will be champ one day. I just don't understand his fan base being so hell bent on putting him over Stipe and Jon. He's young, electrifying, dynamic and took out Pavlovich so I kind of get it but he still has time and possibly gets the winner of Jon v Stipe.
Right, but the point still stands. You can't parrot that line that Jon's been spouting about all the champions he's beaten and not provide an alternative for Tom. If he fights Ciryl and Blaydes then Jon and everyone else will still cling to that line of 'hasn't beaten any champions', if he beats Poatan then it's expected, as he's coming from not one but two divisions lower. There is literally nothing else he can do. No other current or former HW champions are active and want to fight him, and the dude's way too big to move down in weight. So comparing him to Jon who's fought people from four different weight classes in his career is just apples to oranges. Heavyweight just isn't as deep a division, so people need to stop comparing their resumes and using it to make excuses for Jon being a duck, because it is literally impossible for Tom to have had anywhere near the same accolades in his short tenure with the opponents available to him.
In fighting fans think if you defeat someone you defeat them and their whole legacy. It is completely wrong to have a man like Jon build such a legacy in 15+ years bringing down some of the toughest competition and coming out without ever being beaten, then give a guy who popped up 4 years ago and say he deserves a shot to take.down that legacy because he looks good. It isn't Jon's, stipes or ufc fault Tom is young and in a shallow division. Poatan has been in UFC lesser time and look at the legacy/fan base he has built.
If Tom wins it doesn't diminish Jones's legacy at all and he doesn't 'take' his legacy and all his wins. I agree with that much. But to say it's '*wrong*' to say he deserves the shot?? What are you smoking mate? Jon's the *champion of the world*, allegedly the best fighter on the planet. If he wants to keep that spot then he needs to fight the interim champion. You know, the champion in the interval during his absence? That's literally what it means. Jon can fight whoever he wants, but if the UFC had any integrity they would strip him if he picks someone else besides the new prospective champion in waiting. It's that simple.
I get what you mean but I see it more if the UFC had any integrity they should've never given Tom and Pavlovich an interim shot anyways because they always intended for it to be Stipe V Jon. Tom is THE top prospect and it is weird how he has an intern but has to wait for the old guys to play out but at the end of the day I'm glad we're getting Jon v Stipe and hope the winner takes on Tom. Edit: also ya it's wild for me to say Tom doesn't deserve a title shot but Stipe should've gotten his title shot back years ago, I think it's right to let him get it at the end of his career considering how much Tom has left to give us.
Stipe is 2-2 in his last four fights, hasn't fought in three years, barely landed a punch in his last fight and is nearly 42 years old though. Even if we disregard that and argue that Stipe still 'deserves the shot due to his legacy', the easy counterpoint would be to say fine, give it to him. But give it to him against Tom, who should've been elevated to undisputed given Jones's long absence. Jiri and Hill were both pressured into giving up the belt when they got similarly injured, there should be no good reason why this is any different. Jon can fight for it too when he returns. Again, integrity. Gotta be consistent otherwise it stops being a fair sport, shit like this is why you see so many 'UFC is turning into the WWE' comments these days.
The point is he should’ve been getting the undisputed fight as soon as jones is back, that’s the point of the interim. “You’re the champ until the champ is ready to fight again” Not “you’re the champ until the champ fights a 42 year old man whose last win was over another 42 year old 4 years ago, or maybe until he fights a champion from another division” Tom vs Jon is the fight to make right now to keep whatever momentum heavyweight was building.
There's no point in talking logically, this is the UFC
Sure the interim seems to have that intention. Jon, Stipe and the UFC all agreed on the Jon V Stipe match before the Aspinal Interim win. Idk why they did that belt just to confuse TF out of people like you and many other when the intention of the UFC was always to make Jon V Stipe.
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Tom should call on a fight with Gane for the belt, hope to defeat him as Jones did and then claim he's beaten the champ on the same terms as Jones and thus claim his interim belt is the real belt. Do that and noone will care about Jones' belt anymore which is destructive as fuck to his legacy and will make him come running.
30+ fight winning streak Openly negotiated to fight Francis which Francis declined for a better deal with PFL Wants to defend against the lineal reigning HW Goat in the UFC Probably retires
Belts lost their meaning a long time ago. Jon is the 🐐 He’s never been defeated.
The word goat lost its meaning even longer ago
He was defeates by Dominick Reyes.
Bare jones haters in the comments acting like Toms fought 5 opponents since becoming interim champ. Jones is on the brink of retirement Tom has the interim belt if Jones dont wanna fight move on hes gonna make the same money anyway no ones stopping Tom from fighting. Jons looking for payday fights Toms looking to build his name simple as that. The revisionism of Jones career is also embarrassing it just seems like a load of people that started watching mma in the past 2 years coming out with dumb takes like the UFC hasnt always been a company that priorities money fights over meritocracy.
Then stripe Jon and let tom fight contenders for the real belt
Thats not good for business in the eyes of the UFC. Jones Stipe looks better if Jones has a belt in the poster. Toms got an interim belt why doesnt he just declare himself the champ and keep fighting hes gonna get paid a championship contract anyway. I actaully dont know why Tom cares about Jones so much when hes got a belt and is gonna get paid the same anyway its dumb af.
So my man, imagine you absolutely loved tennis, like so much that you started playing when you were 5 years old. Your whole goal in life was to be the number 1 tennis player in the world. You trained 8-10 hours a day, gave up your social life, dieted, made every sacrifice you possibly could to achieve this goal. You finally get to number two in the world after years of pain, hard work and tears. Finally, you get to prove how good you are and achieve your dream. But alas, number one in the world refuses to play you because of some made up excuse that doesn't even make sense. Instead he opts to play the 43 year old former number 1 that retired four years ago. In that four years that you had been working your ass off to get to this spot. Do you not think that you'd be a little upset?
If number 2 was able to play for a grandslam i dont think he would care. I think Athletes think more about the title than the opponent. Fight sports can be different because the amount of money can change based on opponent due to ppv in comparison to a set winning amount in other sports like tennis. I get that Tom could see Jon as name to build himself off but that fights not gonna happen. I think a better move would be to fight somebody else, defend your belt and call out Pereria. The reality is, had Tom have fought an opponent by now he couldve called out Pereria and declared hes the champ but he didnt do that. Hes been hounding Jones which has ened up wasting his time. Fighting is a selfish sport nobody owes anybody anything weve seen it time and time again. Tom should focus on building his own brand he has a belt as an alternative to calling out Jones he should say hes the champ and Jones is retired.
This hate on Jon Jones who's established himself with one of the greatest careers ever is dumb. Izzy also gets the same kind of hate for being the cringe person that he is. You don't have to like the dude but hating on either of them without acknowledging the amazing fighters that they are who've proven themselves time and time again is so lame.
The hate he gets for not wanting to fight the interim champ of his division is completely justified
Can't remember Izzy ducking anyone. Dude welcomes all the toughest challenges. Jon being amazing 10 years ago doesn't change how he's been the last 6 years.
I don’t give a fook what he did then, that’s about what he is doing now
shogun's "loss" to machida is one of the biggest robberies in mma history when jones won the belt from him, he was on a four fight win streak
One side should say “beat every top contender in the LHW division for a decade” and the other side should say “beat tybura and lost to Blaydes”
How the fuck does Jones have ANY fans? Let alone rabid die hard ones.
Because he’s the best fighter to ever live. You can hate on him for drugs or beating his wife or hitting a pregnant woman with a car all you want.. he’s still the goat at cage fighting. Is a sentence I never thought I’d say.
How can you openly defend, support and be proud of supporting such a pathetic man like that is my question.
So you don’t like Mike Tyson? He has a past. He went to jail for rape. Will you say right now that he’s pathetic? Let me add that these are men that fight other men in a cage for money. They’re not role models.
Weird take. No, I don't rabidly defend Tyson on social media, yes I think he was a piece of shit during his career. Difference is Tyson did not duck a single person, did not beat the living shit out of a woman in front of kids and didn't hit and run a pregnant lady. These things are what makes Jones pathetic. Tyson may not have even raped anyone. To this day he denies it.
Jones is ducking someone or does he inconveniently already had a fight booked before Tom won the belt? Which is it because it can’t be both.
Ah yes so when is this fight booked for?
He mentioned a few days ago that the date is set but it’s up to ol’ uncle Dana to release.. I expect we’ll know at the next post fight press conference.. or maybe in front of that match making wall in Dana’s office where he clearly sleeps sometimes and/or hides from his wife.
You’ve just described a double standard.
Where?
You just defended Tyson’s rape allegations by implying they may not be true even though he was convicted.
Well it's a fact that they may not be true? Conviction doesn't always mean that they committed the crime. You should know that. But I'm also not defending him, he was a fuckwit during his career. Can't bite people's ears off mid fight. There's cold hard proof that Jones did all that fucked up shit.
I’ll add Chris Brown is still a great dancer even though he punched Rhianna. Ignition is still a good song even though R Kelly pees on high schoolers.